


it's ice to meet you

by ryanwolfe



Series: happy hollifics [4]
Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, First Meetings, Flirting, Gen, M/M, Mailman!Ryan, POV Third Person, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Secret Relationship, Single Parent!Eric, Single Parents, Strangers to Lovers, Two Person Love Triangle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28280829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryanwolfe/pseuds/ryanwolfe
Summary: Nadia has a routine every morning that involves drinking coffee and looking out the window for the mailman.But that’s before her father had gained a new aspect in his morning routine.One day, Nadia’s father just started to take a walk early morning to their mailbox, pausing to briefly chat with the mailman.And now, he does it everyday.(aka eric's daughter watches her father fall in love with the mailman and gets a surprise of her own when eric invites someone over for christmas dinner)
Relationships: Eric Delko/Ryan Wolfe
Series: happy hollifics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055936
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	it's ice to meet you

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i am alive, i promise!
> 
> so yeah, i was gone and i did promise to write a fic a day til christmas, but fear not, i am still doing that, i just disappeared to finish my finals and i did it so i'm back!
> 
> i'm just gonna post the rest of them regardless but i hope you enjoy!
> 
> this year i discovered probably a new favorite trope: two person love triangle so i decided to write my own. originally i didn't plan to write it into this fic but then it happened. it's a nice surprise for the end so enjoy!
> 
> (for context: nadia is eric's daughter from a one night stand and was dropped off to be raised by eric from her runaway mother)
> 
> (speed is also alive because this is my fic and i say so)

Nadia has a routine every morning that involves drinking coffee and looking out the window for the mailman.

To be honest, this is a new routine for her.

She is fifteen, a teenage, and her priorities for the morning usually circle around coffee and sleep.

Before, she would be soaking in every minute of sleep before she’s forced to wake up and then chug two whole cups of coffee in order to gain awareness enough to go to school.

But that’s before her father had gained a new aspect in his morning routine.

One day, Nadia’s father just started to take a walk early morning to their mailbox, pausing to briefly chat with the mailman.

And now, he does it everyday.

At first, Nadia hadn’t even noticed, too preoccupied with sleeping in as much as possible that she didn’t realized that her father had made a new friend.

Not to say it isn’t a good thing. Her father hasn’t really taken time for himself ever since Nadia’s mother had dropped her off and ran away, leaving him to drop everything to raise Nadia.

But now Nadia can take care of herself and her father really needs to get a life now.

So Nadia puts up with the conversations about the mailman —

_“The mailman told me that apparently penguins hold hands, did you know that Nadia?”_ And, _“we should make cookies for Mildred, apparently she said to the mailman that her granddaughter is in the hospital. We should do something nice for her.”_

Nadia also drags herself out of bed to watch these interactions, intrigued with the fact that she’s never heard her father talk this much about someone other than his inner circle.

She watches as her father blushes and turns flustered, takes note of his eyes locked on the mailman as he walks away, counts the times him describes the mailman as handsome, and eavesdrops his conversations with her Aunt Calleigh about _memorizing green eyes_ and _spiky honey brown hair_.

Nadia just keeps watch as her father slowly falls in love with the mailman, taking pleasure in the daily conversations, but wondering if it will turn into anymore.

She gets her answer by the time Christmas rolls around, but not in the way Nadia was expecting.

It’s the first day of Winter break and Nadia sinks back into bed after her daily dose of watching her father flirt so badly with the mailman.

She’s just started to doze off, heading into the space between limo and dreaming, when she’s shaken away by her father slipping into her room and jumping into bed with her.

“Nadia,” a finger not so gently pokes her in the side and she grunts.

“Mija,” this time an elbow slams into her ribs and Nadia just rolls over, grabbing a pillow to blindly whack her father.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” the pillow is wrangled out of her grip and is tossed back at her head. That wakes her up and she forces herself up, throwing the pillow back at her father, who is a little shit, already laughing at her. She smacks it against his head, prompting a pillow fight, feathers flying out across her room as the two circle each other, trying to inflict as much pain as pillows can do to each other.

Her father ends the war when he catapults a pillow straight in her face, causing Nadia to fall back into bed and she waves a white blanket in surrender, laughter bubbling within her and bursting out, her father joining her as he lays down next to her.

“What do you want from me?” She questions him a few minutes later, once they’ve caught their breaths, Nadia once again bundled in her comforter, as her father joins her under the covers.

He rolls over to face her, and he looks serious enough that Nadia automatically straightens up, her brows furrowing in confusion.

“We might be having a guest for Christmas dinner.”

The weight of that sentence fully hits Nadia, realization seeping in because for the longest time, it’s always been just the two of them for Christmas dinner.

In the beginning, her father being so overwhelmed with the responsibility of Nadia, Christmas dinner alternated between his extended family and his friends from work, like Aunt Calleigh and Uncle Speed. But later on, they figured out their rhythm and every Christmas Day is usually the two of them alone, choosing to make the day their own tradition.

Also, the fact that her father chooses to phrase it as inviting a guest is code for _romantic partner_ , which Uncle Speed told her, because in her whole fifteen years on Earth, Nadia has never once been introduced to someone in her father’s love life. Though then again, she’s pretty sure that he doesn’t even have a love life, having noticed that her father doesn’t have time to go out and date, too busy with Nadia and his work as a scuba dive instructor.

So hearing that her father might have someone in his life, and that the someone in question is important enough to meet Nadia throws her off.

Her father is patiently waiting for her response, hands twisting nervously, eyes darted away not to meet Nadia’s gaze, and she promised to herself when she was younger that her father deserves to be happy, which prompts her to say, “okay.”

It’s one word, but to her father, it seems like the world, because he instantly straightens up and his eyes light up, and Nadia can feel herself smile, even though her own world has been rocked off the axis.

“Okay,” he parrots and gets up, running a hand over her hair and leaving to let her sleep more.

The last coherent thought Nadia has is to call Aunt Calleigh when she wakes up, because she always has information on her father's love life.

//

It’s Christmas and Nadia has never seen her father this nervous ever.

The whole day has been relatively normal considering what’s going to happen at dinner.

Nadia is woken up by her father jumping into bed and shaking it til she vows to wake up because —

“it’s Christmas, Mija! Let’s go see what Santa brought us!”

“Santa isn’t real Dad, I’m fifteen, I know you bought everything and just puts his name on the tags.”

“Way to be a killjoy, sweetheart. Guess Santa’s gonna have to return those gifts he gave you.”

“Wait no! No! Don’t you dare —“

That causes both of them to race down the staircase in an attempt to fight for the presents laying under the tree, elbows slamming into each other’s sides and Nadia leaping onto her father’s back, causing him to pretend to drop her and complain about how he’s “old now”, that she’s too heavy to carry.

She retaliates by launching a slipper at his head.

They settle down enough so they can start tearing through presents, her father following her lead, being just as much of a kid as Nadia, but neither bring it up.

After presents, the two of them cook a late breakfast/early lunch, consisting of leftover cookies and omelets, because it’s probably not healthy to eat just desserts for breakfast.

“I’m supposed to be the adult here, you know.”

“But cookies!” Nadia whines, shoving a snowflake shaped cookie into her mouth, chewing loudly with her mouth open in order to annoy her father. He shakes his head in response, pushing a finger under her chin to close her mouth.

They spend the rest of the day lazing around, watching holiday movies and making fun of them because they all consist of stereotype white people who have the weirdest situations and it could never be reality.

When five o’clock hits, it’s like a switch turns on and her father starts panicking, trying to deep clean the house while at the same time trying to pick the perfect outfit.

It’s pretty funny considering that their Christmas dinner tradition is basically ordering take out, usually whatever they’re craving on the day and that whoever the guest is must be pretty special that Nadia’s father is running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

When the doorbell rings, Nadia is more than surprised at who’s standing there.

“Hello Eric,” and the fucking mailman that her father has been flirting with is standing there with a bottle of wine in his hand, practically beaming when her father appears behind her.

“Ryan,” her father breathes out, tugging the mailman into the house and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Nadia takes a moment to gather herself, eyeing the two, her father blushing and the mailman looking up with a lovesick smile.

They look good together, and she’s never seen her father look more happier than in this moment.

Guess Santa can deliver miracles after all.

**Author's Note:**

> i really loved writing those conversation/bickering between nadia and eric, loved that this fic kinda focused more on their relationship, and that this is from the pov of nadia watching eric/ryan.
> 
> also wanted to thank you all for the love on my fic "your presents is requested" because i'm surprised so many of you have enjoyed it. lol i really didn't plan for it to be so fluff and cheesy but thanks! also thanks for the comments and feedback, really loved being quoted my story back to me💓
> 
> (happy holidays to all of you and hope everyone's being safe this season!)


End file.
